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SIREN LACERTINA. 



General Remarks. The Siren lacertina was first observed in South Carohna 

 by Dr. Garden, who sent it with the following remarks to Linnaeus: "this extra- 

 ordinary two-legged animal lives in dams and ponds of fresh-water all over the 

 province (South Carolina). I have them of all sizes, from 4 inches to 3 feet in 

 length, and they always appeared to me the same animal in every thing but 

 magnitude." 



LinnfEus, struck with the singular appearance and organization of this curious 

 reptile, wrote to Dr. Garden, that "nothing had ever so much exercised his 

 thoughts, nor was there any thing he so much wished to know as the real nature 

 of an animal so extraordinary." Unable to refer it to any family of reptiles, he 

 instituted for it a new order and genus; Ordo III., Amphibia meantes; Genus, 

 Siren; which were published in the seventh volume of the Amocnitates Academicse, 

 for the year 1765. 



At first Linnaeus seems to have thought it possible that the Siren might be the 

 larva of some large and unknown Salamander,* and not an animal in its perfect 

 or ultimate state; and he further says, "if it is a larva the Doctor (Garden) will 

 doubtless find specimens with four legs." This opinion was adopted by the most 

 celebrated naturalists until within a few years; thus Lacepede says that he "never 

 for a single moment doubted that this animal was a larva and ought not to form 

 a new genus." Even Cuvier himself was at first inclined to this opinion, though 

 he subsequently abandoned it. 



The publication of the correspondence of Garden with Linnteus on this subject 

 in 1821, settled the question at last; for in 1770 he writes, "I have taken every 

 opportunity of examining whether the Siren undergoes any metamorphosis or not; 

 and though I have observed them in various stages, from its smallest to its largest 

 size, I have never perceived any variation in form or other respects;" and in 



* Siren lacertina an Larva Lacertce? Syst. Nat., torn. i. p. 371. 



